The present invention relates generally to machine type communication (MTC) devices, and, more particularly, to activating an MTC service in a mobile communication network.
The anticipated introduction of a large volume of machine-type communication (MTC) devices in the near future will greatly increase the demand on the resources of mobile communication networks. MTC devices are devices, such as meters or sensors, that collect and send data to an MTC server or other MTC devices over a communication network. It is expected that MTC devices will soon far outnumber non-MTC devices, such as user terminals for voice and data communications by human users.
Mobile communication networks have been traditionally designed for voice and data communication between human users. Increasingly though, MTC devices are conducting machine-to-machine communications over mobile communication networks.